Shorthanded 15-30 Turn play

[HiatusOver]

This hand is online 15-30. 5 people are dealt in and I am watching my friend play. My friend has been a winning pro over the past year and a half making a bit more than 1 big bet an hour playing mostly 20-40 B&M and often higher. I strongly disagree with 2 plays he made, and would like some feedback.

Friend is in BB and is dealt 69o. Cut-off raises, button calls, SB calls and Friend calls. I would always fold this, but just by the pre-flop action here it is pretty obvious he is up against less than expert players so I guess the call is not horrible IF you play it expertly post-flop.
Anyways...

FLOP A-8-3 rainbow...checked around.

TURN (7) completes the rainbow A-8-3-7...turn gets checked around.
This is where I disagree 100% and assume most of you will. I would usually bet the turn here no matter what card in the deck came off. With the open-ender I think you MUST bet this turn card. His reasoning for the check, (though he admits it might be wrong) was that he feared a huge hand from the PFR because of his flop check, and he didnt want to get raised and pay double for his draw. He had no prior knowledge of how the PFR plays.

River (J) again checked around

I think this was probably mistake #3.

My friend is a strong tight-aggressive player who beats the games every month, although he is not a huge S&M fan and we definitely play differently. Do others agree with the way he played the hand, or have any different theories on how the hand should be approached.

***when responding please try to ignore the pre-flop call, pretend it was 69s if that helps***

[Nomar]

If the game is going to remain shorthanded, a check here on the turn is not a bad play to change things up as well to reduce SD, but the river is clearly a missed opportunity.




Cowboy UP. GO SOX !!!!!

[HiatusOver]

Any thoughts on this hand?

[elysium]

hi hi
fold pre-flop.

[bobgreen]

Sometimes, when I'm running bad and smell like a loser to everyone else in the game, they call me everytime, unless they raise me. So if your friend hadn't dragged a pot for some while, he might have been wise to avoid bluffing.
If he remembers, conciously or otherwise, the PFR likes to trap, he may have been wise to eschew the bluff.
Otherwise, this was a gimme to any bet on either round. Friend erred bigtime.
I promise I tried to ignore the preflop call, I promise. But you said "not horrible IF you play it expertly post-flop." and I say he didn't play it expertly and it is horrible however you play postflop.

[Punker]

I agree with everything your friend did in this hand, including the preflop call, and especially with his turn check reasoning. A turn bet semibluff must have some chance of folding the field to have value. Here, he would be investing 30 into a pot of 180 with 8 outs. Given his odds of 8/46, he has odds to call a bet, but putting in two bets would be a disaster. So, the only reason to bet would be to hope that everyone folds. Given the flop check, there is enough "curiosity" calls out there that its going to be near impossible to bluff this through, unless he's willing to fire again on the river (which may not work anyways).

I like checking on the turn as well because if you hit the river, it may encourage the opposition to overplay their hands.